![[Lake scene drawing]](http://images.midwestweekend.com/graphics/lake_scene.gif)
In 1997, a small-town damsel who married a prince — well, an heir — waved a silver wand over her hometown of Perry, Iowa, and unusual things began to happen.
She took the Hotel Pattee, a dowdy brick building on the brink of demolition, and
filled it with terra-cotta tile, Persian rugs and so much Honduran mahogany she cornered the market for it. Artists moved in
and painted murals and whimsical folk-art lamps, bedsteads and armoires.
Decorators went to work on the Arts and Crafts lobby and library, a railroad dining-car restaurant and 40 theme rooms and suites that honor everyone from Louis Armstrong to the creator of the "Alley Oop’’ comic strip.
In Bayfield, the Seagull Bay Motel is a throwback to bygone days.
The roadside motel was built in 1957, and it hasn't kept up with the times — there's no fitness room, no hot tub, no spa services, no designer decor. Modern developers consider it a tear-down, says owner Mike Goodier.
Strange, then, that so many people want to stay there.